Top 5 Worst Purchases For Your Financial Future

There are good purchases. And then there are the really bad, ugly, regretful, worst purchases that leave a close range shotgun hole in your bank account.

My objective is to get your money working for you like a well-oiled machine and to save you from financial mistakes.

Because you’ll never reach financial freedom if you take one step forward and three steps backward. That doesn’t make sense.

But millions of people are in debt over their heads—that’s not an exaggeration. And the average household with credit card debt owes a balance of $16,748. That’s thousands of dollars a year in interest. Wow!

So why do people continue to commit these financial sins?

There are two guilty parties conspiring against your net worth. And these bandits are reckless. I mean truly despicable savages.

Criminal number one is this consumerism culture pushing the desire to always want something new and never be satisfied with what you have.

This culture is so intense nowadays that people attach their identity to what they have, not who they are as an individual.

For example, they feel good the day they get the new iPhone. But then the second the next one comes out and they don’t have it, they have anxiety. So they spend all their attention and money to get the newest one.

That’s just how they react for their phone. The same attitude exists in all of their purchases. And the bank account takes a beating daily.

You won’t like to hear this, but the second criminal in the manslaughter against your bank account is yourself. That’s right, the face in the mirror who has an intense desire to please and appease your loved ones and friends.

This concept falls in the same bucket as the “keeping up with the Joneses” disease that sweeps the world.

A Volkswagen commercial makes fun of one neighbor who continues to copy the other, but this reality is too true today.

Have your coworkers, friends, or family ever indirectly influenced you to buy something to keep up with them or a new trend? I bet they have. It’s human nature nowadays.

And don’t get me started on your shopping trips with your partners in crime to the mall. You all act like shopping friends, when honestly you’re all peer pressuring each other to waste money.

Can you tell I have strong feelings about this topic? Good, that’s the point.

Using your money for freedom is a serious issue. I’m going to come guns blazing on this one to get my point across.

While I believe sending money to anything that doesn’t make you money or cover necessary expenses is a waste, some purchases are more expensive in the long run than others.

Now I’m not saying the following 5 purchases don’t hold any overall value. But from a strictly financial viewpoint, these are the top 5 worst purchases that will blow up your finances.

5 Worst Purchases For Your Money

1. Home

Wait. Haven’t your parents, the media, and the government told you a home was a good investment, how you signal you’re an official adult, and the path to the American dream? They’re all wrong!

First, I look for investments that get at least 7% to 10% interest annually. Anything less than that isn’t worth my money or time.

I bet this will be shocking news to you: Home ownership produces a big fat 0% long-term return. When you include property taxes and interest rates, your home could produce a negative return—yikes!

I’m certainly never paying property taxes and interest rate taxes on my stocks, or buying stocks that get me a 0% return.

And when you compare a home to a soaring investment like Bitcoin, which has more than tripled in value for me (300% return in less than a year) then buying a home looks even worse.

Plus you have to pay interest on the mortgage, leaving you with less cash flow to invest in your future.

The biggest advantage to investing is getting started early and utilizing compound interest over time. But if your home sucks away that money then you can’t build toward financial freedom.

And then there’s the fact that buying a home ties you down to one location. This limits your mobility and your desire to take a higher paying job in another city because of the pain of moving out of your house.

Settling in one place makes it easy to get comfortable and become complacent with life, instead of striving for more.

The main point is buying a home is nothing more than a savings account. It’s not an investment that will consistently make you money.

Meaning you’re most likely sacrificing millions of dollars down the road because of your home purchase.

Think about that before you commit to a 30 year mortgage and $250,000 on a house as a young adult.

2. New Car

Who wouldn’t want to buy a brand new $30,000 car with a sleek design, flashy wheels, exquisite interior, and new car smell? I know I would.

But buying a new car is like buying a stock on its worst trading day of the year. Because a new car value drops 11% the second you drive this shiny toy off the lot.

That 11% loss is nothing to take lightly. Then when you add the interest rate to the car loan, things only get worse.

Pretty soon you have a new car but no money for gas to drive it—that’s a joke but there’s some truth in it. New cars are sweet until you realize they’re a black hole for your money.

Don’t make the mistake of valuing what you drive ahead of your financial freedom and future. All cars become worthless eventually—where assets keep producing.

Following this rule means to buy a $15,000 car you’d need to make a $150,000 income this year. Although it’s controversial (864 comments arguing back and forth on the article) I’m with Financial Samurai and his frugality.

Would you rather look sweet in your whip and be a slave to your bills, or go from point A to B in a used car with complete freedom? If it’s freedom you seek, a brand new car only gets in your way.

3. Boat / Motorcycle / RV / Plane

Buying a boat, motorcycle, RV, small plane, etc., is undoubtedly the wrong move to make as a young adult in your 20s.

Save that for later when you’re financially free and have more money to throw around.

Why should you wait to enjoy the pleasures of these vehicles? It all goes back to the power of compound interest. Any money you put into an expensive purchase like one of these is money that should be used to multiply your net worth.

And if you really have an urge, remember you can rent a boat, motorcycle, or RV for a week. It’s always cheaper to rent these vehicles than own!

This is the worst purchase on this entire list because all of them are unnecessary. The others are somewhat excusable because you need to have a roof over your head, to commute to work, to get dressed, and to not walk barefoot.

4. Expensive Clothes

Look, I get it. Fashion is trendy, it’s cool, and it inspires confidence.

Plus my sister, A Style Breeze, is a fashion blogger who loves dressing up and I sense the passion each time she talks about it. (Her and I even did a video together titled Look Good, Feel Good that explains the importance of looking good and its social benefits.)

But there’s a difference between looking presentable and balling out at the mall like you’re on a mission to spend as much money as possible. Surprisingly people act like that.

For example, there’s a cult following for these Supreme hoodies that cost around $150.

It’s not the most expensive thing in the world, but it’s just a sweatshirt that says the word “Supreme” on the front. And my frugal head doesn’t understand why people spend $150 to buy one.

Because the math and the money doesn’t make sense when you could invest $150 at a 10% return and reach:

$389, 10 years later

$1,009, 20 years later

$2,617, 30 years later

$6,788, 40 years later

$17,608, 50 years later

You might laugh that I extended this out to 50 years later. But wouldn’t you rather retire at 70 with $17,608 of cold hard cash or have bought a hoodie 50 years earlier and have no idea where it is?

By learning about Warren Buffett’s mindset towards money and writing my own money book, I’ve learned you have to think this way about your money if you want to be wealthy.

The point is don’t try to dress like Kanye unless you have Kanye money. And even he needs help with his finances apparently:

A few quick tips to save money on clothes are to:

Ask for clothes (and pick them out in advance) for your birthday and Christmas presents

Borrow roommates’, friends’, or siblings’ clothes

Get steals at Goodwill, Plato’s Closet, or other thrift stores

Buy versatile tops and bottoms you can wear with anything

Purchase based on need and appearance over name brands

5. High-End Shoes

Since they get worn down and lose value with each step, shoes offer weak long-term durability and that’s why they’re a worse purchase than clothes.

You can at least resell clothes and sometimes get 50% of the purchase price. But it’s extremely difficult to recover money from selling used shoes.

It’s best to think of your shoes like you would your car, just a resource to get you from point A to B.

Although the shoes are gorgeous, I’d never buy Yeezy’s ($1,000+) or Lonzo Ball’s new ZO2s ($495 retail) unless I checked my account and saw 8 figures looking back at me.

And wise girls would hold off on the high-end designer heels to find knockoffs that look similar but cost $30 instead of $300.

If you put your money into high-end shoes, be comfortable putting your money in dirt, rain, mud, and snow because those are the elements damaging your shoe purchase.

Where Are Good Places To Put Your Money?

I don’t want to write an article bashing places you put your money and then not give you any solutions.

Negativity and problem-finding is lame. Positivity and problem-solving is the game.

Here’s where to put your money if you want to financially get ahead in the game of life:

Those are four solid options right there to grow your net worth. Not a single one of them will give you 0% return on your money like homeownership.

And there are also tax incentives to putting your money in these assets. For example, capital gains from your stocks are taxed less than a W2 employee’s income, businesses are taxed less, and rental property offers many deductions to save on taxes.

The difference is all four of these investments are assets that will pay you money, where the home, car, boat, clothes, and shoes are all liabilities that will suck your money dry.

You have the information. Now the choice is yours.

Do you want short-term comfort and to feel proud in front of your family and friends that you can buy nice things? Or do you really want to commit to financial freedom and a successful future?

This answer is a foregone conclusion for me. I have all my chips in the pot, I’m all in, for financial freedom. And that’s why I’m going to get there soon.

If you want to join me, order my Amazon bestselling book Freedom Mindset. This will help make investing simple for you to understand and do yourself.

I believe in you. You can reach financial freedom!

Final Words

Not everything’s about money.

If you really want a home or a motorcycle because it’s always been a dream of yours, then just because it’s not a good investment doesn’t mean you shouldn’t get it.

For cases like that, I recommend you compromise and here’s what I mean.

Say your motorcycle costs $300 a month. To make up for this fun purchase, you increase your monthly investment contribution by $300 a month. Or you save 10% more of your income each month to counteract this splurge.

That way you’re not sacrificing your future. The motorcycle cuts away at your entertainment or eating out budget, not your money for investing or saving.

However, in terms of strictly a financial perspective, none of these purchases—home, car, boat, clothes, shoes—will be bank account positive.

And all of them (maybe besides a house), whether you admit it or not, are short-term moves for instant gratification. Cashing in for the short-term is no way to build wealth.

The way to get rich is to invest in assets, be patient, and continue to pour money into those investments like gasoline to a fire.

If it helps, I’ll be right there with you on the journey to financial freedom.

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9 Reasons Young Adults Are Insane Not To Invest In The Stock Market

Nearly 80% of millennials are not invested in the stock market. That’s scary! And it means a world of financial regret is on the horizon.

That statistic comes from a 2016 Harris poll which surveyed 500 American young adults (ages 18 to 34) and found the main reasons why they don’t own stock is:

40% don’t feel they have enough money to invest

34% don’t feel educated about it to know how

13% said student debt was the reason they haven’t invested

On one hand, some of these people have a point.

For example, it’s impossible to invest when you have close to $0 in your bank account after bills at the end of the month. And it goes against logic to expect someone to invest when they don’t know how to in the first place.

But I see some excuses at the bottom of this.

For the millennials who say they don’t have enough money, I’d ask them, “What have you done to solve this problem?”

Investing in an S&P 500 Index fund, where you buy a tiny ownership of America’s top 500 public companies (give or take), is a great deal for your future.

If you invest in the stock market in your early twenties, there’s often a jackpot at the end of the tunnel. It’s literally like winning the lottery because you’ll end up with millions if you invest your money wisely.

Look at the graph below to see just the growth from 1980 until now. Better news is the graph remains pretty constant on average if you go back 100 years from now—up and to the right.

It’s no wonder Warren Buffett said this,

By periodically investing in an index fund, the know-nothing investor can actually out-perform most investment professionals.

If you don’t have faith in putting your money in the hands of the best public companies in America, who are you going to trust with your money?

Where can you find a better option that history backs up?

Exactly, that’s my point.

P.S. I’m not your financial adviser, but look at the graph one more time and make the only sound conclusion! History often repeats itself.

2) No active work is required to profit big.

Like the video above explains, when you set up automatic contributions (through your employer or own brokerage account) then all you have to do is sit back and let your index fund do the work.

How reassuring is that!? Maybe the greatest quality of investing in the stock market is it’s 100% hands off and doesn’t need your time to produce wealth.

It’s get even better when you do a simple comparison of all the time that’s required to build wealth in other areas.

Real estate: Renting out real estate is a pain in the butt if you’re renters aren’t angels (news flash: most people aren’t angels). You can expect property damage, late payments, missed payments, broken rules, and other nightmares that will really second guess your decision to be a landlord.

And even owning property is a headache because of the crazy expensive closing costs, taxes, property fees, HOA fees, and not to mention the monthly maintenance when the sink or shower breaks. It’s never fun to be nickled and dimed to death, which is a usually a regular occurrence in real estate.

Owning a business: If you’re not willing to be obsessed and let your personal desires die for the good of the company, your company isn’t going to generate significant profits compared to the hundreds of thousands and millions of dollars that investing in the market can.

You can work 80 to 100 hour weeks to build your company and hope it brings you wealth. Or invest in companies like Facebook and Amazon where other people are putting in insane work weeks to churn shareholders like you a profit while you relax on the weekend, and take steps toward financial freedom.

Working as an employee: The problem with working as an employee is you’re going to have to do some serious corporate ladder climbing to get salary raises and generate some kind of wealth. Even then, odds are you’re not getting a 7% to 10% salary increase every year like the stock market provides on average.

The stock market is the most reliable avenue towards wealth.

3) Incredibly higher rate of return than real estate.

You want to put your money where it can grow and produce more money for you, right? Then go with the stock market. And, don’t buy a home!

According to James Altucher, the commonly shared belief that buying a home is an investment is all too wrong. He points out that from 1890 to 2004, housing returned 0.4% per year. Yikes that’s criminal!

The list of reasons for a house’s poor return include all of the above like upfront closing costs, title insurance, moving costs. And then ongoing expenses like home maintenance when something breaks, property taxes, and the inability to easily move for a better paying job.

If you own stocks instead, you can kiss all of those annoyances goodbye. And not to mention, most importantly, come home with an average return on investment of 7% to 10% if you buy a S&P 500 Index fund.

4) Investing into index funds protects your money against inflation.

Inflation is an ugly beast. It robs you of your hard-earned money, well the true worth and purchasing power of that money, over time. And the worst part is it’s unstoppable, in a sense.

For example, if you keep your money as cash then it’s unstoppable and your dollars will always be worth less as the years pile up.

Reason being is the S&P 500 beats inflation the majority of the time and these types of assets are immune to inflation.

Plus, many companies can pass on the costs to their customers. So if you own shares of these companies, then you’ll get the profits as an investor (even if you take a small hit as a consumer).

This is just another example of why it pays to be an investor and not a consumer.

5) Buying stock is a liquid investment you can sell at any moment.

Run into a tight squeeze where you need immediate money?

Or do you ignore the sound advice to build an emergency savings fund and it bites you in the butt as your car breaks down or you lose your job?

While it’s never a good idea to sell an asset early and get in your own way of bringing in more profits, the fact that stocks are liquid investments can be a life-saver for some.

At any moment of any day, I can sell shares of my individual stocks or index fund and get cash in my checking account as soon as the transfer completes—usually two to three days.

The opposite is true with real estate and other types of investments.

Once that money is taken out of your bank account for a down payment or mortgage payment, then you have no chance of getting that money back on your real estate investment property in the immediate future.

Instead of selling your investment immediately and receiving the money in two to three days with stocks, you may have to wait two to three years to sell your asset if it’s real estate.

Liquid assets like stocks are even more valuable given the quality that you can sell them at any time.

6) Easy to diversity where your money is invested.

Assuming your name isn’t Richie Rich, the odds of you owning 25 different startup companies or 17 penthouse properties across the globe are slim to none.

Though you can own a sliver of 500 different companies or even thousands if you buy index funds listed in the stock market. For example, you can buy a car, technology, food, retail, shoe, farm product, defense, and more companies than you can possibly remember to stay diverse.

Reason I bring that up is diversity is key for the average investor who is scared of losing all of their money or loses sleep when their investments are volatile.

A well-diversified investment portfolio protects against volatility and too much risk, which is hard to come by in other asset types.

7) Get taxed lower for long-term capital gains.

Investing in the stock market doesn’t mean the taxes on your returns completely go away. (Wouldn’t that be a blessing?)

But the taxes you pay on long-term capital gains (stocks you own for longer than 12 months) are significantly decreased compared to getting taxed on regular income.

Add this to the list of reasons it’s in your best interest to invest. If the government incentivizes investing with these tax policies and you still don’t do it, something is wrong with you.

Just don’t buy and sell your stock earlier than a year of holding it or else you’ll be taxed higher since it’d be a short-term capital gains tax (any stock sold before you’ve had it for at least 12 months).

Oh, that’s not it. If your investments lose money, you can also lower your tax bill using those losses. The goal of investing is not to lose money, but if it happens then reducing your tax bill is a decent compromise.

A wealth growing vehicle that also reduces my taxes is a slam dunk investment. This opportunity is yours for the taking as well.

8) It’s the only way to own a percentage of the products and services you regularly buy.

Eat at McDonald’s every day (like my dad does)? You can own a piece of them buy buying MCD.

Are you a big texter and talker on the phone? You can buy shares in Verizon (VZ).

Always enjoy a nice Disney movie to take you back to your childhood? Buy shares in ticker symbol DIS.

The ability to purchases ownership of a company you use all the time is another thing investing in stocks has going for it.

Now would I put all of my money in only products or services I buy? No, but it is a nice mental exercise to purchase ownership of a company that you use all of the time.

Because, in a way, you’re kind of buying from yourself and profiting from yourself. That’s legit!

9) It’s easy to get your feet wet with a small amount of money.

Want to be an angel investor to invest in a hot new startup company? Can’t happen unless you have an annual income of over $200,000 and a net worth of $1 million. Poor people not invited.

Want to buy your own multi-family real estate property and rent it out? Good luck collecting that $100,000 down payment to secure the property on top of the mortgage payments every month.

The system blocks out the little investors who can’t make any moves to grow their wealth.

However, it’s easy to start small when buying stocks.

You don’t need to be an accredited investor to invest in companies like Facebook, Amazon, Netflix, and other giant companies like GE.

So if you only have $600 to invest, perfect. Buy $600 worth of shares into a Vanguard index fund and slowly increase your position over time by buying more shares going forward.

Heck there are even new apps out there that will automatically help you invest spare change from purchases like Acorns.

Where buying other assets like real estate and startup investing limit everyone but the rich from participating, anyone can get started investing with as little as a $100 give or take.

And for any parents out there, it’s wise to put your kid’s birthday money into an index fund to get them off on the right start. A little money invested now can likely snowball into millions.

You Reap What You Sow

Two different financial realities await you.

The good news is you’re in control of your financial future. You get to decide the plot line.

If you desire to retire early, have millions in the bank to spend during your golden years, and live a comfortable retirement with your family, all you need to do is start investing.

The bad news is you’re also in control. Meaning you can make the wrong money decisions, not invest in the stock market, and be left with the staggering consequences.

Retirement isn’t fun if you have no money to afford to do anything entertaining. Then post-work life becomes the biggest drag of your life. Some people stop living to such a degree that they wish for death.

So from one young adult to another, make the right choice.

Have a long-term view about life. Buy some shares in a S&P 500 Index fund. And get the financial markets working for your money, not against your money.

Then you’ll give yourself a great opportunity for a happy ending: reaching financial freedom.

Avoid Bad Credit With These 5 Action Steps

Everyone starts out their financial lives with a clean slate, but over time you can accumulate bad credit that affects your future finances, loans, and stress.

Now that credit cards are so readily available, people are more likely to acquire bad credit than ever before. Let’s be clear, it’s not the credit cards fault people go into debt and build bad credit, it’s the people’s.

Though if you already find yourself saddled with bad credit, there are services that can help you with this including fixmy.credit.

And if you still have a clean financial record or are committed to rebuild one, here are five of the best ways to avoid bad credit.

5 Ways To Avoid Bad Credit

1) Pay your bills on time

This first one couldn’t be more obvious when talking credit score. As you might have already guessed, paying your bills on time every month is the number one thing you can do from preventing any damages to your credit record.

This can be particularly damaging if you miss payments by 30 days or more, so keeping on top of this task should be one of your main priorities.

Remember, even small overdue charges can have a negative impact. Always bear this in mind before making new purchases and receiving a bill.

2) Always start with credit-impacting bills

If you’re in one of those month where it seems everything financially that could go wrong does, you may not have enough money to pay all of your bills. In this situation it always helps to know which bills are the ones which can directly affect your credit score straight away.

That is not to say that you should entirely ignore the other bills, but you can prioritize the crucial bills—credit card, mortgage, loans etc.— to start off with.

Then do whatever you can (save more, spend less, eat peanut butter and jelly for a week) to pay off the bills you couldn’t the month before.

3) Avoid taking on unnecessary debt

As we mentioned at the start, more and more people are taking on debt with these days in order to finance their lifestyles (aka “Keeping up with the Joneses”). But debt doesn’t go away on its own, it needs to be properly managed and paid for.

If you have too much debt which is spread around all over the place, you are much more likely to start missing payments because you don’t have enough money to pay them or you forget about them which will lead you getting into bigger problems.

And your credit score is both influenced by the level of debt that you have overall and also your monthly credit card balance in comparison to your credit limit. Keep that monthly balance as low as you reasonably can which should open up extra savings to put toward debt.

4) Practice managing your money

People manage money in different ways, but you want to make sure you avoid getting in over your head as much as possible.

So, before you decide to take on any new expenses, make sure you stop to think how this could affect you.

You will get the fullest picture of this by creating a monthly budget in which you weigh up your monthly salary versus your expenses. Identify what is essential and nonessential so you know what can be cut if you need to.

5) Save for unexpected emergencies

Though bank balances aren’t factored into your credit score, having some reserves of cash put aside can ensure that you are in a position to deal with any negative financial events which may come your way.

After all, you never know when a financial emergency could put your current lifestyle under threat, so always being properly prepared is certainly the best policy to maintain. And having an emergency account to deploy cash protects you from going deeper into debt if that’s your reality.

Choose Good Credit

Avoiding bad credit is a good financial practice throughout your entire life, so use these five methods as a way to achieve some financial confidence.

Then you can rest easier at night knowing at least your finances are in order, even if the rest of your world is not.

And please remember, every financial decision you make from here on out (and really the day you received your first credit card, but we can’t go back in time) pushes you towards good credit or bad credit.

Paying your bills on time, not taking on significant and unnecessary debt, keeping a budget, and saving for emergencies is how you gift yourself a high credit score. That causes lenders like banks and businesses to want to lend to you and give you a friendlier loan and interest rate because you’re not a high-risk applicant.

Not only are you rewarded with receiving the loan then, if it’s a big purchase like a house or car then the interest rate will often save you thousands of dollars. Winning!

However, making credit card or bill mistakes results in bad credit, lender’s less likely to lend to you, and if they do it’s at a much higher cost. The cards are stacked against you if you continue to build bad credit. And, in most cases, it’s no one’s fault but yours.

So help yourself by moving towards good credit. The future you will be extremely appreciative, and be in a much better off financial place.

Do This To Ensure You Become A Stock Market Millionaire

Wouldn’t it be cool to be not just a millionaire, but be a stock market millionaire? That’s way sweeter than inheriting millions or winning the lottery.

Because the status of stock market millionaire has 3 main advantages below the surface.

For one, you get the pride that both your hard work learning how to invest and your patience paid off extremely well. Inheriting money comes nowhere close to the high feeling of earning your own money.

Making your own lot builds confidence in yourself in all aspects of life going forward.

Second, how life changing would it be to have a million dollars to your name? Imagine the increase in living conditions for the loved ones around you and yourself if you pulled this off.

Just paying off your cars, education, and house in full would be unreal, and your overall financial stress would almost vanish.

So there’s no question investing in the stock market can change your life.

And third, becoming a stock market millionaire doesn’t mean you’re maxed out on making money because you have to save some for the other fish in the sea. It’s the opposite!

The amount of money you can make is unlimited, which leads to my point. You can take what you’ve learned to earn your first $1,000,000, and use that financial knowledge to go make yourself $2, then $5, and then $10 million in the future.

See what I mean? That’s why no one disputes the saying “the rich get richer” because it’s spot on.

Liking what you’re reading? Nothing is stopping you from achieving this reality.

Here’s the simple roadmap to become a stock market millionaire.

Where To Invest Your Money

If you’re familiar with my money talks, you already know I’m a big fan of investing in the S&P 500 Index.

For new audiences: In my book Freedom Mindset, I recommend every beginning investor puts their money into a S&P 500 Index fund. And I’m making that same recommendation to you.

Just take a look at this chart to see why.

You can bet on anything close to a 10% annual return if you put your money here.

I’ve covered this all over the place in my book, articles, and YouTube videos so I won’t go too far in-depth. Check out my other resources if you’re interested in learning more about index funds.

Missing months of contributing money to your portfolio every year will cut off anywhere from $100,000 to $10,000,000 in potential lifetime earnings or more. No discipline will cost you if you commit this unforced error.

To protect yourself from this error and guarantee you always hit your monthly investment contribution, do this one thing: Set up automatic monthly contributions to your investment account.

By automatic monthly contribution, I just mean setting up a recurring transfer from your checking account to your investment account to buy more shares in your index fund every month.

If you can set this up (and continue to make enough money where there’s enough money in the checking account for the transfer to go through), you can ensure you eventually become a stock market millionaire.

That’s basically it to be honest. Not too complicated right?

The best part in my opinion is that this is 100% hands off labor once you set it up once. Setting up this monthly transfer could take as little as 5 minutes.

Just don’t stop these monthly contributions and the gravy train will keep cruising along to increase your net worth. You have to love this!

Gameplan Going Forward

Once you’ve set up your automatic monthly recurring investments (say that five times fast), all there’s left to do is sit back and relax baby.

Well not really, but it sounded good.

Your objective at this point is to make more money (and save more) so you can feed the beast more ammunition so it brings you back more money.

Your goal isn’t to make money so you can save it, but so you can invest it to earn a higher income. That’s what the 1% has learned and the middle-class struggles with executing.

But once you’re closer to retirement, or if you decide to retire early with your stock market winnings, then the gameplan will change. Eventually the beast will feed you money to live on instead of you feeding it.

Until you’re at that comfortable spot though, feed the beast with automatic monthly contributions and he won’t let your finances down.